While the country celebratedNational Girl Child Day with the aim to create awareness about the rights of girl child and inequalities they face, there are several sectors in which much has to be done for giving equal rights to them.
Be it selection of sex during pregnancy or giving them Education or suffering sexual violence, female children are still suppressed. For instance, the state witnessed a decline in the sex ratio of the children born in the last five years from 934 in National Family Health Survey-4 (NFHS-4) to 908 in NFHS-5.
Though the overall female Population was more than of males, thesex ratio in Biharwitnessed a declining trend, contrary to the national Average where it increased from 919 in NFHS-4 to 929 in NFHS-5.
Though there has been a decline in such cases, compared to the earlier data, it’s is still more in the state than the national average. For instance, 14.2% of young Women aged 18 to 29 years inBiharexperienced sexual violence by the age of 18. This Percentage came down to 8.3% in NFHS-5. However, the national data states that 1.5% of women in the same age group had experienced sexual violence both in NFHS-4 and NFHS-5.
Even in the cases of violence, though an improvement has been reported when compared to the previous years’ data, a lot more is needed to be done. For instance, the number of married women in the age of 18 to 49 years experiencing spouse’s violence has come down in Bihar from while 43.7% to 40% in NFHS-5.